Herald News: Clifton board can't edit out the public

PUBLIC SCHOOL board meetings are just that, public records of public business being conducted by public officials at taxpayer expense. Anytime someone decides to censor those meetings, or any record of those meetings, it amounts to a violation of the public trust.

One glaring example of such a violation occurred earlier this month at a Clifton Board of Education meeting, when part of the public discussion was inexplicably cut from the meeting tape before it was aired on local access TV. As Staff Writer Jeff Green reports, the meeting in question stems from a confrontation between school board officials and a parent wishing to criticize Clifton Superintendent Richard Tardalo.

The problem began when Keith Bassford, husband of a school board member, began to openly challenge Tardalo at a board meeting after a recent encounter between the men. Board President Gary Passenti stopped Bassford from lodging his complaint about Tardalo, telling him, "You're out of order." The board's attorney also weighed in, saying Bassford's comments, which he never uttered, were "offensive."

Certainly, a public meeting should not become a sideshow where anyone with a personal agenda can launch into endless criticism or personal attacks on a public official without keeping in mind some parameters of good taste and decency.

Clearly, at the meeting in question, tempers were running high. Perhaps Passenti felt a need to stifle Bassford's comments. Even if that were the case, under no circumstances should the exchange have been deliberately cut from the public taping of the meeting.

The board's attorney, Isabel Machado, maintains the school district could be held legally responsible if it allowed Bassford's comments to be televised. She cited a policy that asks the public to be courteous and "not make defamatory statements about any of our employees."

Bassford never got to make any defamatory statements. Even if he or someone else had, the public still has a right to hear all of what was said. Clifton residents who did not attend the meeting have the same right to hear what happened as those who attended.

We don't know if this is, as some critics say, further evidence of a school board that has conducted business lately in a less than transparent fashion. We do know there is no excuse for public officials to edit public meetings, no matter who said what during them.